Today I'm really happy to be the next stop in Nikki Navarre's Blog Tour for her newest release The Russian Seduction, a romantic suspense story that sounds really exciting! Nikki stops by today with an excerpt of her brand new story you don't want to miss :)
For your chance to win your own copy of The Russian Seduction check the end of the post for the details and don't forget to visit all the other bloggers participating in this tour, to multiply your chances :) You can find a full schedule of the tour here.
The Russian Seduction by Nikki Navarre Teaser
Victor Kostenko was the golden boy of the Russian Navy, a submarine captain with a maverick image, until he lost his command for an act of treason he didn't commit. Arrogant, aggressive, and super-smart, the captain pairs his daunting reputation with an appetite for adventure. And he's never met a rule he won't break. Now it's rumored he'll do anything to get back in his government's good graces.
Political Counselor Alexis Castle is one of the highest-ranked diplomats at the U.S. Embassy, a rising star who yearns to live up to her father's legacy as a legendary ambassador. Brilliant and driven, she's always played by the rules. She'll torpedo her career for sure if she falls for one of the world's most dangerous men—a bad-boy Russian sub captain who breaks every rule in the book.
In this teaser from The Russian Seduction, my debut romantic suspense release set in the glittering cosmopolitan world of modern-day Russia, Victor and Alexis have just made contact in a private box at the Bolshoi Ballet. It’s an unconventional choice of locale for political negotiation, set up by Victor, that has Alexis pretty unsettled. Her career rests on establishing a dialogue with the renegade captain, but each of them suspects the other of being an intelligence agent with a hidden agenda. Given the risk that Victor is under orders to compromise her—not to mention the virtual certainty that they’re under surveillance—the sizzling chemistry between them is an itch she can’t afford to scratch.
# # #
“What else can you tell me?” Alexis was all business.
“I can tell you that the government of the Russian Federation wishes to maintain unofficial and informal channels of communication with yours on this issue—at my level.” Kostenko’s voice altered, deepened. “So as you see, Ms. Castle, I have now an unimpeachable excuse to entertain you from the most elegant to the most risqué locales in Moscow, on a weekly or even nightly basis…if one were to wish for that.”
Her breath snared in her throat, heart stuttering like a novice Third Secretary fielding orders from the President. Outbluffed and outgunned—damn it, she was better than this. Kostenko had to be mocking her, trying to disconcert her. Or maybe he simply viewed her as another chance to flaunt the rules by implying that some sort of inappropriate attraction sizzled between them.
“Would one wish for such a thing, captain?” She raised a skeptical brow to show him she wouldn’t rise to his bait, but found herself retreating before he could pounce. “Naturally, I can do nothing and commit to nothing without instructions from my capital.”
“Naturally.” A diabolical gleam flickered in those diamond-hard eyes as he shrugged, probably for the benefit of their viewing audience. “Do what you must, Ms. Castle.”
Behind the concealment of the low barrier before them, he leaned in and captured her hand. Alexis lost any semblance of professional detachment when she fumbled and dropped her pen.
Taking advantage of that flicker of hesitation, he tightened his warm calloused grip. The rugged hand of a laborer or an extreme sports enthusiast, exactly the type of rough-edged adventurer that always turned her on. But he was escalating their encounter to the physical for purely strategic reasons, so why the hell was she thinking about guys who’d turned her on?
He turned her hand upward, traced the lines of her palm, feather light. An unexpected shiver of pleasure zinged up her arm, making her entire body tingle.
“Tell them in Washington whatever you wish,” he murmured in a liquid torrent of Russian that arrested her, head bowed over her hand. The hot brush of his breath on her palm made her shudder as his cobalt eyes seared into her. “Tell them, why don’t you, that the first time I saw you at the German Ambassador’s residence, I burned to discover how you would look and feel and taste in my bed.”
Whoa. The raw physical shock of those words surged through her. He’d probably said it to disconcert her, throw her off-stride. Did he guess it’d been years since any man pursued her sexually—all too intimidated, she supposed, by her crisp diplomatic persona and her famous last name?
But Kostenko’s underhanded tactics appeared to be working, because she couldn’t seem to get enough breath into her lungs to challenge him. Consequently, that current of low-voiced Russian kept rolling right over her.
“Tell them in Washington that I’ve thought of nothing else.” His eyes riveted hers like lasers, tracking her every reaction. “Tell them your knees go weak and you get goosebumps when I touch you. Tell them everything—if you require instructions from your capital to know how to respond.”
She sucked in oxygen to roast him for his arrogance—and to rebuff him, that went without saying. She needed to regain control with an unequivocal rejection, for the sake of her career, and for so many other reasons she couldn’t even count them.
“I hardly require instructions from Washington, captain, to know how to deal with a man like you. A woman in my position gets hit on all the time, unfortunately, so your antics barely stir my interest.”
“But you’ll report the conquest to your capital nonetheless, won’t you?” He froze her with an icy smile, shocking after his heated words. “I’m fairly certain they’ll tell you ‘well done hooking him,’ and to reel me in. Or should I consider it mere coincidence that the government of the United States has appointed you to become my counterpart—the woman they calculated I’d be least able to resist?”
OK, he was definitely playing her, plucking her strings like a maestro with a violin. And she’d better not let him think his ploy was working.
“Sorry, but I’m still unmoved by your charms,” she said blandly. “If you want to disconcert me, I’m afraid you’ll have to do better than that.”
“Is that a request or an instruction?” His mouth nuzzled her palm, shredding every pretense of indifference she’d projected. A deep throb of response rolled through her, shocking her.
Low in her throat, a sound shivered out before she could swallow it. And despite the murmur of half-a-dozen languages rising from the parterre, she prayed he hadn’t detected it—he, whose life had hung on listening and reacting in the ocean’s dark depths.
He shot her an upward look from eyes that flickered with electric heat. “How am I doing now, Ms. Castle?”
DOSSIER FOR NIKKI NAVARRE
DECLASSIFIED
Subject: Nikki Navarre
Assignment: Double Agent
Cover: Diplomat. Playgirl. Author of The Russian Seduction.
Nikki Navarre is the sinister twin of unsuspecting historical romance author Laura Navarre. In her other life, Nikki is a diplomat who’s lived in Russia and works on weapons of mass destruction issues. In the line of duty, she’s been trapped in an elevator in a nuclear power plant and has stalked the corridors of facilities churning out nerve agent and other apocalyptic weapons. In this capacity, she meets many of the world’s most dangerous men.
Inspired by the perilous realities of her real life, Nikki writes romantic suspense set in glamorous international locales and laced with political intrigue. Her literary credentials are suspiciously similar to those of her innocent twin. A member of Romance Writers of America’s Published Author Network (PAN), winner of the 2012 Pacific Northwest Writers Association award for romance and a 2009 Golden Heart finalist, she has won the Emily Award for Excellence, the First Coast Romance Writers Beacon Award, the Georgia Romance Writers Maggie Award, the Golden Pen, Hearts through History’s Romance through the Ages, and other awards.
Nikki holds an M.F.A. in Writing Popular Fiction from the University of Southern Maine, an M.A. in National Security Policy from The George Washington University, and other alarming credentials. Based in Seattle with her screenwriter accomplice and two Siberian cats, she divides her time between her writing career and other adventures for U.S. government clients. Her notorious adventures in the world of diplomacy will get her in trouble one of these days.
The Russian Seduction (October 2012) may be the last mistake she ever makes.
About the Russian Seduction:
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Foreign Affairs, #1
Tone: Dramatic, action
Heat Level: Hot
Tags/elements: Romantic suspense, international intrigue, political romance, contemporary romance, Russia, diplomacy, espionage, sex, glamor, mystery, suspense
Publisher: Affluent Press
Publishing Date: October 1, 2012
Word Count: 258 pages
Format: Digital and Print
Purchase Info: Amazon, All Romance ebook Digital
State secrets have never been this sexy.
Victor Kostenko was the golden boy of the Russian Navy, a submarine captain with a maverick image, until he lost his command for an act of treason he didn’t commit. Arrogant, aggressive, and super-smart, the captain pairs his daunting reputation with an appetite for adventure. And he’s never met a rule he won’t break. Now it’s rumored he’ll do anything to get back in his government’s good graces.
Political Counselor Alexis Castle is one of the highest-ranked diplomats at the U.S. Embassy, a rising star who yearns to live up to her father’s legacy as a legendary ambassador. Brilliant and driven, she’s always played by the rules. She’ll torpedo her career for sure if she falls for one of the world’s most dangerous men – a bad-boy Russian sub captain who breaks every rule in the book.
When a hard-line Russian leader invades a country the U.S. promised to protect, war can only be avoided by a risky undercover liaison between one man who has everything to gain…and a woman who has everything to lose.
~~~~~~~~~~~~GIVEAWAY~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lit Connect has generously offered an e-copy of The Russian Seduction to one lucky winner. There will be one randomly drawn commenter from each tour stop that will win one digital copy of THE RUSSIAN SEDUCTION via All Romance ebooks. (The winner must have an ARe account to accept the 'gift').Open Internationally.
Good Luck to all!
Guidelines
~ The contest is open to all.
~ You must be 13 years old or over to participate.
~ The winner will be chosen via Random.org
~ The prize is submitted by the author/publisher and I have no responsibility whatsoever over it.
~ The contest will be open until October 12th.
~ The winner will be notified via e-mail and will have 24 hours to confirm his/her e-mail address before a new winner is selected.
~Fill the form below to enter ~
Thanks for hosting Nikki today! :)
ReplyDeleteNice excerpt.
ReplyDeletebn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
I really like the premise of the book, I used to love reading "glamorous" books like Jackie Collins in my teens. And couple that with suspense, and I am in!
ReplyDelete